Does anyone have links or recommendations for mace and steel club workout programs? As much fun as it's to just play with them I'd like an actual program. From what I've seen, alot of people do flows with the mace. I'm not really into dancing with my mace and want a more traditional approach. I would like a program like s&s and sfg that's straight to the point, not a lot of moving parts, effective, and minimalistic.
The session I described above follows my basic template for clubbell and maces. The general programming principles I use are as follows, although I am not very strict about it:
Weight selection:
--I mostly stay in the upper range of what I can handle comfortably with good form.
Exercise selection:
--Focus on the big bang for the buck ballistic drills. I might play around with a low volume of other drills before or after my main drills, but they aren't ever the main focus. I tend to use clubbells and maces in separate sessions.
--For clubs (I pick a few variations per session):
--Mills (1-Arm and 2-Arm)
--Reverse Mills (1-Arm and 2-Arm)
--Shield casts (1-Arm)
--Inside and outside pendulums (single and double)
--Swipes (double)
--For maces:
--360s (consecutive and alternating. I use the name "alternating 360" instead of "10-2" if I am doing them by coming to a stop at the vertical center position at the end of every rep, which isn't really going 10-2)
--10-2 (I also often do a more flowing 10-2 style, instead of coming to a stop between reps)
--I alternate grips each set.
Set Length:
--Short enough so I can quickly recover between sets and do a high total volume for the session.
--This usually works out to 10 total reps, but often broken up into 5 in each direction, depending on the drill.
--For 1-arm mills and reverse mills I often do more consecutive reps, often 4 consecutive sets of ten, alternating hands each set.
Rest Periods:
--Long enough to recover well and accumulate a high volume for the session. I sometimes use a clock and sometimes go by feel. The actual time depends on the drill, load and set length. If using a clock, you have to experiment to find a good interval that keeps things moving, but is long enough so you can sustain the effort.
--It's an "A+A style" approach in that the load is relatively heavy, the sets are relatively short, recovery between sets is relatively generous, accumulated volume is relatively high, and overall perceived effort is relatively moderate. However, given the nature of clubbells and maces, the sets are longer in time and reps than "real" A+A, and recovery tends to be based more on local muscular fatigue than breathing or heartrate.
Volume:
I try to accumulate a significant volume. Typically a whole session will be at least 300 reps and often over 1000.
Frequency:
Depends on what else I am doing. I most commonly rotate mace or clubbell sessions with KB sessions during a week, and end up doing between 1-3 of each (obviously not 3 of each in a single week, but somewhere in that range for each).
Progression:
I don't really worry about "progress." I just put in the reps, and usually stay with more or less the same weights for long periods of time. When a given weight starts to feel easy, I might start practicing with a heavier weight and work it into my sessions by feel, but progressing the weight is really not a focus.